The Number Of Victims Of The Turkish-Syria Earthquake Continues To Be Repeated, Even The Japanese Earthquake In 2011 And Turkey In 1999

Photo via Twitter @at_fire

JAKARTA - The earthquake victims centered in Turkey have now exceeded 20,000. This means that they have passed the number of victims in the 2011 Japanese earthquake and 1999 Turkish earthquake.

Daily website reports of Hurriyet and foreign media, including the Nikkei, said some 17,600 people died in Turkey and about 3,300 people in Syria.

Thus, a total of nearly 21,000 human lives have been lost. This figure exceeds the number of earthquake and tsunami victims in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 which claimed 18,400 lives, reported by Antara, Friday, February 10.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Monday 6 February - as a result of the movement of East Anatolia faults in Turkey's southeast and south - has also surpassed the number of earthquake victims in 1999, as well as in Turkey, which this time claimed 18,000 lives.

Unlike the current earthquake centered in the Pazarc pathk district of KahramanmaraLE Province, the earthquake that occurred in 1999 was triggered by the movement of the North Anatolia fault.

As of Thursday (9/2) at around 21.00 WIB, Turkey's disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) still said the figure was 16,170 fatalities in Turkey.

However, foreign and local mass media Turkey has updated the figure to around 17,000.

According to reports from the Hurriyet newspaper website, the SAR team is racing against time to save residents trapped under the rubble of buildings due to earthquake shocks.

Relatives of the people trapped behind the rubble were in the vicinity of the rubble to ensure their families survived or received help.

Meanwhile in Syria, the UN aid convoy for the first time entered the rebel-held northwestern region of Syria which was one of the worst areas affected by the earthquake.

The region was previously blockaded by Syrian President Bashar al Assad's government forces.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to rebuild every house that collapsed and was destroyed by the earthquake.

Erdogan also began implementing the emergency law which he last implemented after a 2016 coup attempt.